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Ask HN: How do you store the knowledge gained in a day?

65 points dennisy | 2 comments | 13 May 25 18:23 UTC | HN request time: 0.455s | source

Each day I (and I assume most knowledge workers, devs, creatives) read many articles, papers, code snippets, AI responses, discord messages etc.

At the end of the day some of this information is most likely lodged in your brain and the digital version can be discarded. However some of it should be retained manually in some system - or at least I feel it should.

What approaches do people use to consolidate and store this information to allow all tabs etc to be closed for the next work day?

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malux85 ◴[13 May 25 19:56 UTC] No.43977003[source]▶
I have vscode open and a directory structure for organisation

The first folder - TODO is more like “Working memory” - unsorted interesting learnings, my actual todo list, notes and thoughts for the next few days

Then different sections for larger relevant parts of my life and memory

People Robots Company Code Reading ZanySchemes Family …etc

Whenever working memory is getting full I’ll take the time (30 seconds) to organise - either move or delete.

The key parts are - 1) Organise when it makes sense to, don’t try and design it all up front and don’t be scared of refactoring memories - the directory structure will anneal to something stable

2) have some damn discipline - tidy your notes, tidy your mind, and put the time and effort in, most people give up on note taking because they are too undisciplined to keep their virtual mind tidy, if you keep your notes tidy then up-keep is negligible, just like keeping your house tidy, maintain a high standard and then upkeep is easy

replies(1): >>43977026 #
1. dennisy ◴[13 May 25 19:58 UTC] No.43977026[source]▶
And these are just text files with no fixed structure?
replies(1): >>43977114 #
2. malux85 ◴[13 May 25 20:06 UTC] No.43977114[source]▶
Whatever it needs to be - some have pdfs, images, schematics, code, text files with links.

If a text file starts getting too big I’ll reorder it or split it out.

I think the key thing is developing the skill that suits you - don’t try and constrain it with some rule (all files must have structure X) because invariably something will not fit that pattern and then you’ll give up or spend too much effort trying to find the holy grail of data structures and then you’ll give up.

Let it flow naturally without constraints, it will settle on a form that is useful